LEGO Company COMPANY HISTORY The LEGO Company is a family-owned and actively managed company founded in Billund, Denmark by carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, grandfather of current president and CEO Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. (The last names are spelled differently due to a mistake made on the birth certificate of Ole Kirk Christiansen). Ole Kirk opened his carpentry shop in 1916. His main business was building houses and making furniture for the region’s farmers. In 1932, he began making wooden toys, including buses, animal pull toys and piggy banks. He switched his business to toy making because Denmark was in the midst of a depression, and he believed that while parents would make due without new furniture, they still would provide play opportunities for their children. The LEGO Company produced its first plastic toys, including baby rattles and toy tractors in 1947. In 1949, Ole Kirk introduced Automatic Binding Bricks and interlocking plastic blocks, the forerunners of today’s LEGO bricks. During a 1954 trip to a toy fair, Ole Kirk’s son, Godtfred, met a toy buyer who complained that no company offered a comprehensive toy system. In response, he began to develop what later became known as the 10 characteristics of the LEGO System of Play: Unlimited Play Potential, For Girls and for Boys, Fun for Every Age, Year-round Play, Healthy and Quiet Play, Long Hours of Play, Imagination, Creativity, Development, the More LEGO Elements the Greater the Value, Extra Sets Available, and Quality in Every Detail. Sales improved dramatically in 1958 when the company introduced a combinable brick. Two eight-stud bricks could now be joined in 24 ways. Three bricks could be combined in 1,060 ways. Children could build tall structures of practically any shape. By the end of 1950’s, LEGO bricks had become the most popular toys in Europe. The LEGO Company introduced LEGO® DUPLO® preschool toys in 1969 and the LEGO TECHNIC® advanced building line in 1977, expanding the System of Play from toddlers to teens. The 1995 intro- duction of LEGO® PRIMO® (now called LEGO® BABY) expanded the LEGO System of Play to babies as young as three months. The company continues to enhance the System, introducing new sets each year. In 1998, LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ robotics products and LEGO Media™ games launched. Today, the LEGO assortment includes more than 2,000 elements in more than 700 sets. LEGO toys are sold in 130 countries and have been played with by over 400,000,000 children over the years. The LEGO Company now comprises 50 companies on six continents with 9,000 employees, 1000 in the United States. The Company, however, continues to observe the motto adopted in the 1930s by Ole Kirk Christiansen, “Only the best is good enough.” COMPANY HISTORY LEGO Company SYSTEM OF PLAY LEGO® BABY: Ages 0 - 36 months LEGO® BABY toys contain an array of oversized toys with smooth rounded edges. Babies’ tiny hands can easily grasp the colorful pieces, including rattling elements, people figures, stacking blocks and more. Designed to stimulate the senses and encourage play, the toys help develop babies’ motor skills and hand-eye coordination. New for 2000 are rings, rattles and musical toys. LEGO BABY sets are the first step in the LEGO System of Play. ® ® 1 LEGO DUPLO : Ages 1 /2 - 6 years LEGO® DUPLO® preschool toys provide the next step in the LEGO System of Play, with sets that match the developing skills and interests of children under age 7. Designed for a preschooler’s hands, a LEGO DUPLO bricks is eight times the size of a standard LEGO brick – twice as big in every dimension. The basic building sets nourish young imaginations through free-form building, while the themed play sets stimulate creative role play. LEGO® Action Wheelers: Ages 4+ years The new LEGO Action Wheelers line is the next step in the LEGO System of Play. It combines LEGO DUPLO blocks with realistic vehicle components. With a “special” tool, youngsters can quickly build their creations and dive into hours of fun, creative play. LEGO®: Ages 3+ years The LEGO® toy line includes Classic and Play Theme sets. Classic sets combine traditional LEGO® bricks with an abundance of special pieces – designed to fuel a child’s imagination through free-form building. Launching this year, Soccer theme sets add a new dimension to the LEGO line, inviting kids to build and compete against each other. The new Dino, Arctic, Knights Kingdom and Race mini-themes and the Mickey for Kids theme were developed to inspire building and role-play. LEGO TECHNIC®: Ages 7+ years Using the gears, pulleys, beams and other special pieces in LEGO TECHNIC® sets, children who have advanced through the LEGO System of Play build realistic models featuring precision movements. Many LEGO TECHNIC sets can be motorized with the addition of a Power Pack. New for LEGO TECHNIC in 2000 are Roboriders, advanced builder Star Wars sets and Speed Slammers. LEGO® MINDSTORMS™: Ages 9+ years Launched in 1998, LEGO® MINDSTORMSTM puts the power of robotics at a child’s command, enabling youngsters to build and program robots that move, and act the way they want. LEGO Media Software: Ages 6+ years LEGO Media was established to build on the natural fit between LEGO play materials and media products. Current offerings include games for the PC CD-ROM and the Nintendo® 64 and PlayStation® game consoles. SYSTEM OF PLAY LEGO Company CORPORATE GUIDELINES We at LEGO Systems, Inc. appreciate your help in protecting our valued trademarks. The following rules will help you use our trademarks correctly. 1. The word LEGO® and our five major brand names: LEGO® BABY, LEGO® DUPLO®, LEGO®, LEGO TECHNIC® and LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ should be written in CAPITAL letters. 2. Please use our trademarks as adjectives, not as nouns. For example, refer to our products as “LEGO® toys,” “LEGO® DUPLO® sets” or “LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ robots.” LEGO products should not be referred to in a generic way, such as “LEGOS” or “legos,” or as plural or possessive words like, “LEGO’s.” 3. The first time one of our registered trademarks appears in copy (especially in a headline or title), it should be accompanied by the appropriate registration symbol (either ®, if the trademark is registered in all of the countries in which it is being used, or TM, if registration is limited or pending). 4. Please do not set any of our trademarks in a special typeface or lettering so that the word takes on the appearance of a new logo or design (e.g., LEGO® toys, NOT LEGO ® toys (Italics)). 5. Our trademarks that contain two or more words should never be split/separated on different lines of printed materials. 6. If there is a need to reproduce a LEGO logo, please contact the Public Relations department at (860) 763-6731 regarding the trademarks’ graphic design. Thank you for your cooperation. LEGO, LEGO BABY, LEGO DUPLO, LEGO SCALA, LEGO TECHNIC, the LEGO TECHNIC logo, LEGO MINDSTORMS, LEGO DACTA, the DACTA logo, LEGOLAND, LEGO Mania, The LEGO Maniac and LEGO Imagination Center are trademarks of the LEGO Company. CORPORATE GUIDELINES LEGO Company FUN FACTS • The word “LEGO” is formed from the Danish words “leg godt,” which means “play well.” Later it was discovered that LEGO means “I put together” in Latin. • An estimated 400 million children and adults all over the world have played with LEGO bricks. • More than 203 billion LEGO elements have been molded from 1949 to the present. • The LEGO Company named a star in honor of its 65th Anniversary. The LEGO Star is in the constellation of Ursa Minor, which also includes the North Star. • LEGO Systems, Inc. – the Americas division of the company celebrated its 25th Anniversary in the United States in 1998. • Two eight-stud LEGO bricks (of the same color) can be combined in 24 different ways. Three eight-stud LEGO bricks (of the same color) can be combined in 1,060 different ways. Six eight-stud LEGO bricks (of the same color) can be combined in 102,981,500 different ways! • The LEGO Company was established in 1932 and is one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers. • The LEGO Company employs 9,000 people in 30 countries, including more than 1,000 people in the United States and Canada. • In the United States and Canada, there are approximately 1.7 million registered LEGO Maniacs (1.5 million in the U.S. and 200,000 in Canada). FUN FACTS LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ MILESTONES 1980: LEGO Educational Products Department™ established. 1986: The first-computer-controlled LEGO products are released. 1989: Dr. Seymour Papert of MIT’s Development Laboratory of Computer Learning becomes “LEGO Professor of Learning Research.” January to February, 1998: LEGO MINDSTORMS and the Robotics Invention System™ are unveiled to the public at toy fairs in Nürnberg, London and New York. May, 1998: With contestant editors from top national gaming publications, LEGO MINDSTORMS conducts the 1998 “Gamers Challenge” at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) in Atlanta. July, 1998: RoboTour™ ’98 launches from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, kicking-off a two-month, 30-city odyssey across America in search of learning about and seeing everything robotic. September, 1998: The Robotics Invention System is launched simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom. November, 1998: The Pilot launch of the FIRST LEGO League takes place at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. February, 1999: The Robotics Discovery Set™ and the Droid Developer Kit™ are unveiled at the American International Toy Fair, in New York. May, 1999: Top professional robot building contestants compete in the LEGO MINDSTORMS “RoboGladiators” competition at E3, in Los Angeles.